Is it me or do the new style of elbo's on teh 25th Gi joes, piss you off as much as they piss me off? Sure they allow for a more life like look, but are really flimsy and dont even bend a full 90 degrees....

They generally Give me the irrits... what about you guys?

They don't seem flimsy to me, but they are inferior in range of motion. I'll take figures that can bend their arms over figures with nice arms.

I like the 25th construction just fine. No real issues. I think the first few figures had some limitations, but that seems to have been worked out.
Never had a problem with the ARAH arms: only that over all the whole ARAH style figure looks dated.

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That's got nothing to do with the engineering style of the elbow joint itself; and everything to do with the sculptors simply bringing the hindarm down too far over the front of the elbow proper. I've seen VOTC joints on SW figs that close to less than 90-degrees, and I believe DTC Barrel Roll does as well.

It's just a matter of the sculptors understanding that we prefer full ranges of motion over silhouette integrity.

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I kinda like what Hasbro did with the 30A Stormtrooper elbows. Looks almost ARAH style but not really. The 30A Stormtrooper also has the 25A articulation in the mid torso and ankles as well.

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The arm movement (or lack thereof) really bugs me. Especially when they come so close with the swivel wrists and all.
I guess I'm going to have to learn how to sand the front of the upper arms down a bit, so the arm can bend up to 90 degrees.

All you really need to do is make a small incision of the material drawn down over the elbow on the front of the hindarm. Cut at an angle pointing toward the middle of the elbow joint's swing point about 1mm deep and you should be good.

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With ankle articulation, double jointed knees and all the little articulation improvements it is a bit of a downer that ARAH figures ended up with better elbow articulation. Really annoying on those figures you have to fix right out of the pack just so they can hold their weapon with two hands. Ha ha, guess all the Joes shot Rambo style now.

What annoys me is that they bend backward almost as far as they bend forward. Nothing like making everybody a contortionist...